COLOMBIA
Reporter leaves country
New York Times reporter Nicholas Casey on Sunday said that he left the nation amid controversy over a story of his on its military and what he called false allegations from pro-government parties. The Times Andean bureau chief penned an article entitled “Colombia Army’s New Kill Orders Send Chill Down Ranks,” putting some in Bogota and among government allies on the defensive. It was enough to alarm lawmaker Maria Fernanda Cabal of the party of President Ivan Duque. Cabal posted photographs of the Times story on Twitter and wrote: “This is the ‘journalist’ Nicholas Casey, who in 2016 toured with the FARC in the jungle. How much could they have paid him for this story? And for this one he just wrote against the Colombian army?” The message quickly went viral, with lawmakers and military officials joining in.
UNITED KINGDOM
Vandals destroy train set
Vandals have smashed up a model railway show, causing thousands of pounds worth of damage and leaving exhibitors “devastated and distraught.” Members of Market Deeping Model Railway club were forced to cancel their annual exhibition at Welland academy in Stamford, Lincolnshire, after the break-in and rampage in the early hours of Saturday morning. The club’s chairman, Peter Davies, 70, told BBC News that the exhibits, including a locomotive unit worth about £8,500 (US$10,840), had been smashed, thrown around and stamped on. Four youths who were arrested on suspicion of burglary and criminal damage have since been released on conditional bail pending further inquiries. Davies said one club member had spent 25 years working on an exhibit that had been wrecked.
ITALY
Government tensions rise
Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini’s top aide turned against Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte as tensions within the populist government escalated over immigration before this week’s European vote. Giancarlo Giorgetti, who is also Cabinet secretary, voiced long-running frustration among lieutenants of the right-wing League party against the anti-establishment Five Star Movement, which picked Conte a year ago. “Conte is no longer impartial,” Giorgetti told newspaper La Stampa. Conte tries to act as a mediator between the League and Five Star, but “when the clash becomes tough and he has to take a side, he goes for the stand of those who put him forward,” Giorgetti said. “The situation cannot last for ever.” Senior officials in the League and Five Star have said the infighting is mainly due to the election campaign, although uncertainty remains on the coalition’s future.
UNITED STATES
Convict asks for money
A Russian gun rights advocate serving a US prison sentence for acting as an unregistered foreign agent has released a video asking for money to help pay her legal costs. Maria Butina was last month sentenced to 18 months after she admitted gathering intelligence on the National Rifle Association and other groups at the direction of a former Russian lawmaker. In the video that appeared on social media, Butina speaks on a telephone in a dormitory with bunk beds. She says her lawyer is filing an appeal and she asks for contributions to help pay him. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday on state TV that “we aren’t financing a lawyer, but we are doing everything so that she will be afforded all rights as a Russian citizen.”
TAJIKISTAN
Prison riot leaves 32 dead
A riot on Sunday evening at a prison in Vakhdat, 17km east of Dushanbe, has left 32 people dead, including 24 members of the Islamic State (IS) group and three guards, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday. Five of the inmates and the three guards were killed by IS prisoners, who then took more inmates hostage, it said in a statement. “Following a reprisal operation, 24 members of this group were killed and 25 others arrested. The hostages were freed” and calm restored to the prison, the statement said. The 20-year-old son of the former head of the nation’s special forces who became a member of the IS leadership in Syria was identified as one of the riot leaders.
CHINA
US envoy visiting Tibet
US Ambassador Terry Branstad is making a rare visit to Tibet to meet local officials and raise concerns about restrictions on Buddhist practices and the preservation of the Himalayan region’s unique culture and language. The US embassy in Beijing said Branstad on Sunday began a seven-day visit the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province, a traditionally Tibetan region also known as Amdo and the birthplace of the Dalai Lama. The trip would include official meetings along with visits to religious and cultural heritage sites, schools and “other places of interest,” it said.
INDONESIA
Frenchman faces death
A court in Lombok yesterday sentenced Frenchman Felix Dorfin to death for drug smuggling, in a surprise verdict after prosecutors asked for a 20-year jail term. Dorfin, 35, was arrested in September last year carrying the suitcase filled with about 3kg of drugs, including ecstasy and amphetamines, at the airport in Lombok. “After finding Felix Dorfin legally and convincingly guilty of importing narcotics... [he] is sentenced to the death penalty,” presiding judge Isnurul Syamsul Arif told the court. He cited Dorfin’s involvement in an international drug syndicate and the amount of drugs in his possession as aggravating factors. “The defendant’s actions could potentially do damage to the younger generation,” Arif added.
SOUTH AFRICA
Zuma back in court
Former president Jacob Zuma was back in court in Pietermaritzburg yesterday as he fights to have corruption charges against him over 1990s arms deal dropped before the case comes to trial. Zuma has been charged with 16 counts of fraud, racketeering and money laundering relating to the weapons deal dating back to before he took office in 2009. He is accused of taking bribes from French defense company Thales during his time as a provincial economy minister and later as deputy president of the African National Congress. He has applied to the court for a permanent stay of prosecution.
CHINA
Old Xinhua story resurfaces
Xinhua news agency yesterday condemned the spreading of “false news” after some Web sites published a year-old alert announcing a ceasefire in the trade dispute with the US. The one-line item, originally published on May 20 last year cited US Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin as saying that the trade dispute was “on hold” following an agreement to set up a framework for addressing trade imbalances. “We condemn the act of spreading false news in the name of Xinhua and reserve the right to hold them accountable according to law,” Xinhua said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese